Numerous inventions for processing and making titanium alloys are present in the art. Descriptions of some of these are found in the below listed patents.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. 4793854 U.S. Pat. No. 3549353 U.S. Pat. No. 3764297 U.S. Pat. No. 4828608 U.S. Pat. No. 3607222 U.S. Pat. No. 3546348 U.S. Pat. No. 4488902 U.S. Pat. No. 3210454 U.S. Pat. No. 3237254 U.S. Pat. No. 4035574 U.S. Pat. No. 3494804 U.S. Pat. No. 3467167 U.S. Pat. No. 4027722 U.S. Pat. No. 3342250 U.S. Pat. No. 2997760 U.S. Pat. No. 4838340 U.S. Pat. No. 3343828 U.S. Pat. No. 2727937 Canadian Pat. No. 549299 British Pat. No. 809444 ______________________________________
Titanium alloys are important because they are ideally suited for a wide variety of applications in the aerospace, aircraft, military and automotive fields. Titanium combines the attractive properties of high strength and light weight with resistance to corrosion and stability under high temperatures. While titanium is easy to fabricate, there are numerous impediments to its wide-spread use. Refining titanium is energy intensive and involves significant costs in handling due to the need for toxic chemicals for its refining. Further, in refining titanium, there is a high cost involved in disposing of the toxic by-products produced in the refinery process. Finally, there are the geopolitical aspects of having to obtain most of the semi-processed titanium sponge from former communist and communist countries as well as from the Republic of South Africa.
In an attempt to overcome the foregoing problems, the presently described invention has been developed. This invention does not require the use of toxic chemicals nor does it produce toxic waste, and it consumes a relatively low amount of energy. These factors along with others result in a comparatively low capital investment to carry out the present invention particularly in view of the fact that the present invention can be economically scaled down when desired. Other points of note with respect to the present invention are that mini-mills may be located near a source of ore or center of consumption when using the present invention and the present invention uses electrical power to refine the ores and produce metallic titanium, its dioxide or its alloys.